Toilet soap powder



Patented Jan. 9, 1934 Tilfi STATE sms-s TQKLET SOAP POWDER No Drawing. Application November 16, 1929 Serial No. 407,789

5 iliaims.

This invention relates to an improved toilet soap powder adapted for use as a substitute for high grade toilet soap.

Numerous powdered soap products have heretofore been proposed and some of them marketed. Soap powders, so-called, are extensively used for washing purposes and usually contain considerable amounts of hydrated sodium carbonate. Soap powder preparations are also made for washing the hands to remove grease, etc. and these usually contain an abrasive material like powdered pumice. Powdered soap has also been produced in the form of particles of substantially pure soap, particularly for high grade laundry purposes.

When an ordinary cake of toilet soap is employed and rubbed between the hands, some of the soap rubs off onto the hands. leaving the hands with a layer of soap of sufiicient thickness to give a distinctly slippery feeling which is often resistant to ready removal by washing, requiring rubbing and washing for an appreciable time before the soap layer is completely removed. When pure soap, in powdered form, is sprinkled on the hands and wet, it tends to run together and form a smeary layer of soap which only slowly dissolves. The result is that a large part of the soap is wasted and serves no useful washing purpose, and moreover, hasto be washed off of the hands, often by washing and rubbing for an appreciable time before the hands are completely freed from it.

My observations lead me to believe that toilet soaps, whether in cake or powder form, are wasteful, much more soap being used than is necessary. High grade toilet soaps, whether in cake or powder form, tend to absorb and hold water. A cake of soap, after use, remains wet for some time and the surface layer is softened by the water absorbed thereby. If the cake is permitted to stand in a dish containing water, the cake is further softened and wasted. Pure soap in powdered form is also hygroscopic or water absorbent, and, if the powder becomes wet,

, the particles stick together and tend to remain in an agglomerated state.

The present invention provides an improved toilet soap powder which enables the soap to be much more effectively employed, which reduces the loss and waste of the soap to a minimum, and which is otherwise free from the objections to the common soap powders and moreover has valuable properties, hereinafter more fully set forth.

I have found that if high grade soaps, such as relatively pure toilet soaps, are intimately admixed, in a finely subdivided condition, with finely subdivided material such as pyrophyllite,

of a fineness such, for example, that it will for the most part pass through a 100 mesh or better a 300 mesh screen, for example, and in proportions such that the soap forms but a small part of the mixture, with the pyrophyllite as the predominating constituent, the resulting composite powder is a particularly valuable toilet soap pow- 65. der. A composite powder, made for example, of 25% soap and pyrophyllite is non-hygroscopic and even water resistant, but nevertheless effective as a toilet soap powder. Such a powder does not absorb moisture and become sticky in 70, a can, but remains in the form of a fine powder and can be sifted from the can without danger of caking. The pyrophyllite is water-repellant and repels the absorption of water from the air by the soap.

The new toilet soap powder can readily be made by taking soap chips or high grade toilet soap and grinding with fine pyrophyllite, for example, pyro-phyllite so fine that for the most part it passes through a 300 mesh screen. Such pyroso phyllite has no abrasive action. It is somewhat like talc in feel, but when mixed with soap it dilutes the soap and keeps the fine soap particles separated so that when the powder is used on the hands the soap is readily dissolved. The pyro- 5 phyllite, although it makes the soap powder water resistant in a dry state, does not materially retard the dissolving of the soap when the powder is added to water, and apparently promotes the dissolution of the soap very materially by 90. keeping the fine soap particles separated from each other. When soap is ground with the fine pyrophyllite, the pyrophyllite particles apparently form a sort of glaze or coating over the soap particles, but whether the particles are 5 coated or glazed or made to adhere, the effect of the pyrophyllite is to dilute the soap and keep the individual soap particles separated from each other so that, when the powder is added to water, as in washing the hands, the soap particles do not agglomerate and cake together, but readily dissolve so that their action is almost instantaneous and with a minimum of loss of soap.

The proportions of the soap and pyrophyllite can be varied, but the proportions of 25% soap and 75% pyrophyllite are very satisfactory. Although the soap forms only a small percentage of the total mixture, and although the pyrophyllite is itself water-repellant, nevertheless the composite powder is remarkably effective as a washing powder. The powder is, moreover, freely fiowing, and remains finely divided and freely flowing, thereby insuring that the soap is kept in the form of separate fine particles. The soap exerts its desired detergent action without interference by the pyrophyllite. The pyrophyllite appears rather to improve and promote the detergent action of the soap by keeping the soap particles separated so that they quickly dissolve and by preventing the soap from caking together on the hands. Even though the particles of soap do not instantly dissolve, yet as they dissolve in the surrounding water, they are kept separated from adjacent soap particles by the pyrophyllite with the result that the soap solutions formed contain the pyrophyllite intimately distributed throughout. Thereby the soap is made effective for itsintended purpose, without excess of soap being required, and accordingly without waste; and the pyrophyllite is readily washed off with the soap so that it is unobjectionable from that standpoint.

Finely divided talc or mica can be used in a similar manner but I do not consider it as advantageous as pyrophyllite.

The new toilet soap powder of the present invention is particularly valuable for use in shaker cans of the kind or type now commonly used for talcum powders or toilet powders. The fine sub-- division of the particles of the powder and the freedom from water absorbing and caking properties enables it to be shaken from the can much as talcum powder is shaken so that any desired amount of the powder can be sprinkled on the hands and eifectively employed.

The toilet soap powder of the present invention presents many advantages from a sanitary standpoint. It makes unnecessary the use of individual cakes of toilet soap and enables each user to sprinkle just the desired amount of the powder on his hands without the contamination which may result from using a cake of soap that has been used by others. The remarkable effectiveness of the soap powder, even with its low percentage of soap, enables the soap to be most efiectively employed, with resulting economy in amount of soap required.

I claim:-

1. A toilet soap powder comprising finely divided high grade soap and pyrophyllite in the proportions of about 25% of soap to of pyrophyllite, and both ingredients being in a finely subdivided state, the particles of pyrophyllite for the most part or entirely passing through a 100 mesh screen and the soap particles being of similar fineness and the particles of pyrophyllite and soap being thoroughly intermixed with each other, said soap particles dissolving almost instantaneously when the powder is added to water.

2. A toilet soap powder comprising finely subdivided soap of toilet grade and finely divided mineral from the group of mica, talc and pyrophyllite, the finely divided mineral being present in materially larger amount than the finely divided soap, and the finely divided soap and mineral being so intimately intermixed and distributed and of such particle size and uniform and intimate admixture that the particles of soap and mineral do not tend to separate from each other to any substantial extent, the soap powder being water resistant in a dry state, but the soap particles being readily dissolved when the powder is added to water, such intimate admixture of finely subdivided soap and mineral being effected by grinding high grade toilet soap with mineral matter which will for the most part pass through a 100 mesh screen, and the soap particles having a fineness similar to that of the mineral matter, said soap particles dissolving almost instantaneously when added to water.

3. A toilet soap powder comprising finely subdivided soap of toilet grade and finely divided mineral from the group of mica, talc and pyrophyllite, the finely divided mineral being present in materially larger amount than the finely divided soap, and the finely divided soap and mineral being so intimately intermixed and distributed and of such particle size and uniform and intimate admixture that the particles of soap and mineral do not tend to separate from each other to any substantial extent, the soap powder being water resistant in a'dry state, but the soap particles being readily dissolved when the powder is added to water, such intimate admixture of finely subdivided soap and mineral being effected by grinding high grade toilet soap with mineral matter which will for the most part pass through a 300 mesh screen. I

4. A toilet soap powder comprising finely subdivided soap of toilet grade and finely divided mineral from the group of mica, talc and pyrophyllite in the proportions of about 25% of soap and 75% of mineral, the particles of mineral for the most part passing through a 100 mesh screen and the particles of soap'being of similar fineness, said soap particles dissolving almost instantaneously when the powder is added to water.

5. A toilet soap powder comprising finely sub divided soap of toilet grade and finely divided pyrophyllite, the finely divided pyrophyllite being present in materially larger amount than the finely divided soap and the finely divided soap and pyrophyllite being so intimately mixed and distributed and of such particlesize and uniform and intimate admixture that the particles of soap and pyrophyllite do not tend to separate from each other to any substantial extent, the soap powder being water resistant in a dry state but the soap particles dissolving almost instantaneously when the powder is added to water, and the particles of pyrophyllite being of a size such that for the most part they will pass through a 300 mesh screen.

WILLIAM H. ALTON. 

